Apr. 8, 2013

Dan Carpenter

Written by

The vaunted fiscal conservatism of our state government certainly has its limits, and it never fails to take the exit ramp when it comes to highways.

The latest sop to that fair-haired lobby, a new shot at a shot-down Indianapolis bypass, would seem to have little chance of becoming reality any time soon, given the exhaustion of the pavement budget. But the General Assembly will replenish that budget (along with lowering taxes?); and even if the tollway proposal fails to make the cut, it does provide a useful glimpse into the mentality of the legislature and governor, coming as it does in the wake of another stalling maneuver on Central Indiana mass transit.

State Senate big shots have revived the spectacularly unpopular Indiana Commerce Connector, promoted and then dropped by then-Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2006. Pegged at more than $1.5 billion in cost (before overruns), the project was seen by a broad cross-section of regional leaders and property owners as a huge potential loss of land without a showing of appreciable gain, as well as a diversion of precious funds from maintenance of existing infrastructure and from the areaís crying need for modern public transportation.

Kind of like the southern extension of I-69, for which the money has run out with major (and unpopular) legs still not built and new sections already falling apart.

How is it that the lords of the Statehouse can be so blithe about multibillion-dollar expenditures on highways, for one of the nationís most interstate-intensive states, while they wring their hands over the mere prospect of allowing a local population to vote whether to tax itself a few cents on the dollar to pay for buses and maybe rail?

Daniels, lionized by his party here and nationally as a bold innovator, an idea man, dismissed mass transit out of hand as counter to Indiana culture, ignoring its successes in comparable communities.

Gov. Mike Pence, who has the final word on where transportation appropriations by the legislature would be spent, has been his usual noncommittal self on the Commerce Corridor issue, but has continued the no-way-but-highways agenda.

He might try listening to the voters and the people theyíve chosen, including Republican mayors Greg Ballard and James Brainard. An overwhelming chorus of regional leaders, from elected officials to representatives of business, labor, religion, education and on and on, has swelled behind the transit referendum. The cause has been studied ad nauseam by experts and vetted to the max in public hearings. The summer study recommended by a Senate committee, and likely to be the outcome of this maddening session, is a pure copout.

So what do we make of this mentality? Itís not boldness and not frugality, not democracy and not leadership. Itís an incorrigible bent for joyrides in an old, borrowed Packard V-12, with special interests at the wheel and the gas gauge on E.

Carpenter is Star op-ed columnist. Contact him at (317) 444-6172, via e-mail at dan.carpenter@indystar.com or on Twitter @IndyStarDanC